Smart bike lights take conventional illumination up a notch, by incorporating intelligent technology that aims to improve your safety when cycling on the road after dark.
Many of these lights use motion-sensing technology. They respond to changes in your speed and even the speed of traffic behind you, to increase your visibility on the road.
Rearview radar lights, a sub-category of smart bike lights, even link to compatible GPS head units to warn of vehicles approaching from behind, showing their speed and relative position.
How do smart bike lights work?
While different models work in different ways and have varying features, smart bike lights are generally designed to interact with your other smart devices, acting as motion-sensing warning systems or responding to what’s happening on the road.
For example, the See.Sense Icon rear light will flash faster and brighter when drivers approach and while you’re braking. It will also send you a smartphone notification if someone tries to steal your bike.
Another example of a smart bike light is the Garmin Varia front light, which communicates with your Garmin Edge bike computer to project light further ahead as your speed increases.
Like the Icon, Garmin’s Varia rear bike light gets brighter as drivers approach behind you. It also has an in-built camera that will save video clips if it detects an incident such as a crash.
Smart bike light pros and cons
Pros
Smart bike lights cost significantly more than the best cheap bike lights. So, what benefits do they offer?
A shared feature of smart lights is their automatic brightness and power output, as well as light modes (constant beam, flashing, etc).
By increasing its output and utilising a more attention-grabbing light mode, a smart light can increase your visibility in crucial situations, such as in traffic or when approaching a junction.
As well as increasing visibility, smart lights can also be more efficient than their non-smart counterparts. According to manufacturer See.Sense, by delivering a brighter light output only when it’s really needed, a smart light uses its battery more efficiently, conserving power and increasing battery life.
Cons
An obvious barrier to owning smart lights is their cost. Another downside is the extra complications involved in setting them up.
While standard bike lights simply need to be charged and mounted to your bike, smart lights will need to be paired to your phone or bike computer in order to deliver their smart function.
However, while they tend to be a pricier investment and require more effort to set up, they’re worth considering if safety is your top priority.
So, should you use them for your cycling?
If a lot of your saddle time falls in the darker hours of the day, a decent set of bike lights is a must.
If you want to go one step further and benefit from even more visibility and comparably efficient battery life, we’d recommend smart bike lights.
We’ve compiled our reviews below to give you an overview of the options available.
The best smart bike lights we’ve reviewed
Bontrager Ion 200 RT and Flare RT (front/rear set)
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- £90 / $120 as tested
- Pros: Uncomplicated design; bright output; good head-unit connectivity
- Cons: Front light not suitable for fast night riding; micro-USB port soon to be outdated
These cube-shaped Bontrager lights are compact but bright – the front puts out 200 lumens and the rear 90 lumens, with both lights offering flashing, constant and constant/flashing modes.
Each has an ambient light sensor to adjust brightness and you can hook them up via ANT+ with a Garmin cycle computer for auto-on when you start to ride and to swap between modes.
- Read more: Bontrager Ion 200 RT and Flare RT review
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Magicshine Ray 2600B Smart Remote
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- $159.99 as tested
- Pros: Bright output; clever sensors
- Cons: Glitchy pairing app
The Magicshine Ray 2600B Smart Remote Bike Light is powerful, with auto-dimming technology and a dual-beam pattern forming a great light for night riding at a competitive price.
It also has a vibration sensor, which turns the light off automatically if you pause your ride to save battery.
Unfortunately, we found the companion app to be slightly glitchy when pairing the light, which you need to do to unlock various features and customise the modes.
- Read more: Magicshine Ray 2600B Smart Remote review
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Exposure Blaze Mk3 Reakt + Peloton
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- £130 / $143 / €130 as tested
- Pros: Focused light; premium construction
- Cons: Proprietary charging port
The Exposure Blaze Mk3 Reakt + Peloton impresses with a focused spot of light and premium construction.
It also packs some smart features, like the Reakt mode, which combines a brake and ambient light sensor.
Slow down and it will up its output to 150 lumens, warning other road users behind you. Peloton mode, the Blaze’s second smart feature, dims the light when it senses a light behind to avoid dazzling other riders.
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Exposure Strada Mk11 SB AKTiv
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- £335 / $420 / AU$590 as tested
- Pros: Well-designed; high-tech; high-performance illuminator
- Cons: Fiddly setup and expensive
Exposure has been making high-performance, high-tech lights in the UK for over a decade.
The Strada has been updated since we reviewed this model, but the older headlight is still packed with great smart features. For example, it can detect oncoming traffic, which automatically dips the beam – a useful feature with such high output.
The light also detects if you've mounted it above or below the bar and adjusts the beam pattern to the different orientations.
However, the setup for the alloy mount is somewhat fiddly and the beam patterns, which are selected with the light off, mean you have to go through the process again if you don't like the result.
- Read more: Exposure Strada Mk11 SB AKTiv review
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Ravemen TR200
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- £49.99 / $39.95 / €39.95 as tested
- Pros: Warning flash and braking light modes; well-designed bracket
- Cons: Auto on/off mode can be sensitive
The Ravemen TR200 is a powerful rear light with an effective brake function, using an internal accelerometer to detect your braking and brighten the light to a static 100-lumen output while slowing down.
There is also an auto on/off mode, which turns the light off when no motion is detected after two minutes. Sometimes it restarts with really small movements, but this is a small niggle.
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See.Sense Icon 3
- £100 / $120 / €115 as tested
- Pros: High brightness and reactivity
- Cons: Can be unpredictable; battery drains quickly in full static mode
The See.Sense Icon 3 combines a bright 350-lumen output with built-in reactivity for changing conditions.
There’s also a theft alarm, which notifies you via your phone if your bike has been moved (say, for example, if you’re in a coffee shop with the bike outside and in Bluetooth range).
Overall, the See.Sense Icon 3 is a high-quality unit, which puts out an enormous amount of light. However, the modes aren’t always totally predictable and the tendency for the static mode to crank up to full brightness can reduce battery life.
- Read more: See.Sense Icon review
Garmin Varia RCT715
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- £350 / $400 / €400 as tested
- Pros: Useful radar function; powerful light; decent camera
- Cons: Post-ride app functionality is poor; expensive
Garmin’s Varia is an on-bike radar system that detects approaching vehicles from up to 140 metres behind you. This is said to improve rearward awareness on the road, while the linked light responds to increase your visibility. It also has a high-definition camera, making it an incident-recording device too.
The light is bright and has a good number of useful settings. The radar functionality remains useful and is a meaningful aid to your awareness on the road. While the recording quality is good, this is more of an incident-recording device rather than an all-in-one action camera
However, the way in which the app and unit handle recorded footage leaves something to be desired. Hopefully, Garmin can improve and address this in later updates.
- Read more: Garmin Varia RCT715 review
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